Arts watch.

Roaring Tribute

Eleventh Dream Day Bids A Fond -- And Loud -- Farewell To Lounge Ax

January 15, 2000|By Greg Kot, Tribune rock critic.

Ten years ago this month, Eleventh Dream Day gave what for them was a typical performance at Lounge Ax -- guitars pinwheeling atop grooves as thrilling as a white-water raft ride. Only difference was, that performance was recorded and surfaced in limited-edition form as the "Borscht" EP -- now a collector's item for anybody who gave two cents not just about Eleventh Dream Day, one of the best bands ever coughed up by the Chicago underground, but about American postpunk guitar rock.

On Wednesday, the core members of that band -- guitarist Rick Rizzo, bassist Douglas McCombs and drummer Janet Beveridge Bean -- reassembled for one of their infrequent live appearances, to salute the club that became such an important part of their history in the days before its closing.

Long gone was second guitarist Baird Figi, and what some longtime Dream Day watchers might have thought was any hope of replicating the "Borscht"-era roar. In recent years, the three have transformed themselves from speed-train conductors into a more introspective, studio-bound outfit. Rizzo has deepened and matured as a songwriter; Bean has devoted considerable time to Freakwater, a fine countryfied acoustic combo; and McCombs is a key member of post-rock experimentalists Tortoise. Bringing the noise no longer seemed to be what it was about.

But from the opening rumble of "Among the Pines," it was clear this night would be different. The band stripped its set list of the quiet stuff and cherrypicked the fiercest tracks from their eight releases stretching to 1987. This was no precious homage to Lounge Ax -- this was an attempt to burn it down.

Bean, whose voice glows with beatific splendor in Freakwater, was no angel calling to the heavens on this night. There was a murderer's gleam in her eye as she peered over the drum kit, and she shouted her back-up refrains on "Orange Moon" as though she were hurling hatchets across the room. When she and Rizzo played call and response on "Making Like a Rug," it was as if Frankie and Johnny were slugging it out, wiping the blood off their chins as they waded in to throw one more punch.

McCombs, a quiet fixture in Tortoise and his solo outfit Brokeback, took on double duty -- his bass serving as both an anchor for the music and a second guitar -- and he lunged at Rizzo as though prodding him to keep up. Rizzo was more than up to the task, taking on the lead and rhythm roles with such a vengeance that at times it sounded as if Figi had never left, the sustained chords he conjured screaming for relief.

After the catharsis of "Awake I Lie," "Orange Moon" and "Tarantula," there wasn't much left to be said, but Dream Day indulged the never-say-die fans with sloppy covers by the Urinals, Neil Young and Bachman Turner Overdrive, secure in the knowledge that they had just given a performance that didn't just honor the legacy of "Borscht," but may well have topped it.

The Dishes opened with a wallop, heckling the crowd for not heckling enough and transforming '60s girl-group harmonies into riotous come-ons and joyous one-finger salutes. The co-ed quartet's quick electro-shock pop songs were a welcome antidote to indie-rock's encroaching mopery.